gluten free

A good risotto is a great dish to showcase seasonal ingredients from all parts of the world. Lia’s pea, broad bean and courgette summer risotto is inspired by Blaencamel farm’s seasonal, organic vegetable box and a popular Greek blogger video (Cucina Caruso) summing up the correct method for an authentic Italian risotto step by step. The result is a risotto recipe where Greece meets Wales and Italy in one plate.

Make sure you make time to enjoy the process of your risotto making selecting some nice music and a beautiful crisp white wine. Now more than ever we implore you to make time for the little joys in life and to enjoy the dolce vita. Eat seasonally, be positive and feel happy!

• 1 tbsp dry dill or the tips of half a small fresh bunch finely chopped

• 100 ml white wine

• Some extra virgin olive oil

• Salt

• Freshly ground pepper to serve

• Grated parmesan cheese

• Some unwaxed lemon zest

Preparation (40min)

1. Prepare the hot stock and add the herbs to infuse it during the first stages of risotto preparation.

2. Coat the surface of a wide and deep pan with just enough olive oil and add the 50g of butter.

3. Once the butter melts add the onion with a pinch of salt and slowly sauté on low heat until it caramelises.

4. Turn the heat up and stir in the rice. Sauté for a minute making sure that every grain is coated in butter.

5. Pour a ladle of the warm stock and stir whilst the rice slowly absorbs it. Only add another ladle of stock once the previous has been absorbed.

6. When one third of the way through the stock add the peas and broad beans together with another ladle of stock and stir until the rice absorbs it. To blanch the peas and beans place in in hot water off the hob for 5 minutes. You can skip blanching if you prefer the beans al dente.

7. Two thirds into the stock add the grated courgette, stirring and allowing the vegetable juice to slowly seep out flavouring the risotto.

8. Then add the wine, stir and when it is absorbed continue adding the stock until you are left with one ladle.

9. Add the last ladle and immediately remove the risotto from the hob.

10. Add the rest of the butter(75g), stir and let the risotto set for a few minutes to create the creamy finish.

11. Serve this delicious risotto with grated parmesan, the grated rind of one lemon and freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy with a chilled glass of Greek Malagouzia/Malvasia or Assyrtiko white wine.

May’s recipe is a Greek traditional Easter soup with a Welsh and clean-eating twist! Mageiritsa is traditionally cooked with lamb’s liver and plenty of greens and salad leaves. This is a vegetarian version and could be made vegan if you choose to not use avgolemono, the egg-lemon sauce typical of many Greek recipes. If you live in Wales what makes this Mageiritsa extra special is using dried kelp from Pembrokeshire. And the final Greek note is the use of the tangy and sharp sea buckthorn berry, which is becoming a staple in my cooking this year.

You don’t need to wait for the weekend for this beautiful dish. It’s a great light midweek dinner or lunch as well as the perfect weekend brunch.

We live in the age of avocado craze so admittedly this is not the first time you see a recipe like this one. But I was asked to blog the recipe by one of my followers when I posted a photo on social media…and here it is.

I love using potatoes instead of bread but sourdough or other bread is a great alternative if that’s what you have handy.

Poached eggs are an absolute treat for me but if you like scrambled or fried don’t let me stop you.

And Dukkah, the Egyptian spice condiment the recipe for which is on my blog, lifts flavours and as another page follower said ‘makes everything taste better’. So maybe have a go at making it this week.

I love smoked salmon with avocado but you can easily omit it and replace with anything you fancy, for example sundried tomatoes work really well with this dish, as does chorizo and other spiced sausage if you are a carnivore.

Ingredients

Feeds 2

2-4 eggs, depending on your hunger

1 avocado, halved and thinly sliced

170g new potatoes

60g smoked salmon, half a packet

Half a lime

1/4 tsp chilli and garlic paste or 4 drops of Tabasco sauce

A few slices baby plum or cherry tomatoes

Salt

Olive oil

White vinegar

1/2 tsp Dukkah spice mix

Preparation

30 minutes

Wash and quarter the new potatoes (skin on) and simmer for 10 minutes, till cooked.

Drain and mix in a bowl with the chilli sauce, a pinch of salt and a careful splash of olive oil.

Squeeze the lime juice on top of the avocado slices and sprinkle carefully with a bit of sea salt.

Slice the smoked salmon into thin slices.

To poach the eggs bring a pot of water to the boil.

Add a tablespoon of white vinegar.

With a fork or spoon stir quickly in the middle to create a whirlpool and quickly crack an egg into its centre.

Simmer for 3-5minutes for a runny poached egg or a bit longer if you like it firmer.

Cook one egg one at a time.

Serve the egg(s) on a bed of potatoes, topped with the salmon strips and the avocados on the side.

Add sliced baby tomatoes on the avocado if that takes your fancy.

Sprinkle the dish with the Dukkah spice mix or a bit of salt.

Lia’s Tips:

You can also add more mild chilli sauces of your choice like Cholula or the coriander chilli sauce from Blaencamel market stall in Cardiff.

A few weeks ago when ordering pie ingredients from Cardiff Market I ended up with about 10kg of onions in excess even after cooking many caramelised onion pies. In the process of making the order I was wearing my astute-business-woman face, hiding tiredness from a long day at work. And the only thing I heard the helpful man say was ‘very little money for a lot of onions’ to which of course I said ‘yes’. It is unlike me to be imprecise with orders (on food or anything really) but this wonderful mistake gave me the opportunity to experiment cooking with a lot of onions within a short period of time.

Admittedly Dan and I will not have onion soup again for a while. But we gratefully savoured its thyme and wine flavours during a May week when the weather had turned bad, we got ill and the heating came on again. French onion soup recipes online are plenty but my version is closest to Elise Bauer’s one on Simply Recipes because I also use no butter. And on occasion I choose to leave out the garlic and also make Gruyere cheese toast on granary bread instead of baguette croutons.

The bulk of my excess onions however I turned into a spiced onion chutney. I almost followed a recipe from Allotment Growing Recipes but did not use as much sugar and added ground pimento berries, bay leaves, port and red wine. The result is a fragrant onion chutney that compliments strong and piquant cheeses competently and also works well with beef burgers. I converted and amended the recipe below for you.

Today I am writing about an experiment. I have no clue whether it will work or not in its virginal attempt but I thought I’d tell you anyway because … I am excited. I have had a go at preserving lemons, which I can then use to accentuate the flavours of tagine dishes. And apparently I could even exepriment with cakes and deserts that use preserved lemons.

Lemons, their colour, their scent, their flavour, their overall character brightness, mean happiness to me. My friend Becks loves the Forsythia hedge in our garden for its yellow flowers and the tone of happiness they bring into our house. They light up the scene. Lemons and their sunshine hue have the same effect on me.

So on a gloomy day like this, when the sun might have gone on holiday to Spain, what better idea than to surround yourself with the colour yellow and cheer your self up! Have a lemonade and wear something yellow!

Ingredients for preserved lemons

Enough for a 10cm diameter jar and about 8 cm height

4 Lemons for preserving

1 Lemon for juice

1 Bay leaf

Some peppercorns

4 Heaped tbsp coarse salt

Additional coarse salt for jar layering

Preparation

20min and 1 month preservation (at least)

Wash unwaxed lemons really well.

Juice the juiciest of lemons. Then slice the leftover skin in strips.

Layer the bottom of the jar with a couple of heaped tbsp of coarse salt.

Cut the four lemons in four but avoid cutting through them. Cut along the middle of the lemon first and then across.

Pull the flesh of each lemon open and add 1 or more tbsp of heaped salt inside it.

Add lemons to the jar snuggly and top with more coarse salt.

Sprinkle with peppercorns between layers.

Add bay leaves to the sides of the jar.

Top with strips of the juiced lemon flesh and top with more salt.

Pour the lemon juice over the contents of the jar.

Push down lemons with a wooden spoon to bring lemon juices out.

Seal and wait patiently for at least a month for your lemons to preserve.

Lia’s Notes:

You can also use limes. I added one lime to make the experiment more interesting.

Salt takes away the lemons bitterness. Same effect it has on aubergines when you prepare them for cooking.

You can keep preserved lemons for about a year.

My tinterweb research reveals thta Meyer lemons are the best for preserved lemons. I just used what I had.

I decided to use flavourings inspired by Snowflake Kitchen’s Blog and as I have bay leaves in abundance all year around.

Zoe English makes the best preserved lemons I have tried. Fact. She has ecnouraged me to do my own. Who she is I am sure you will find out soon 🙂

Punk Domestics, a directory of cooks and community activity and a gateway to cookery blogs, is how I learnt to preserve lemons.

Like this:

Spring is here! I am writing to you from one of our local cafés. Its wide French doors are open to an outdoor terrace. It’s still light and warm and a soft breeze just brought in scents of blossom (and something delicious cooking in a kitchen).

I have chosen to share with you the recipe for Tourlou, a mixed vegetable dish that tastes like spring and summer to me. A fridge chilled portion of it with some crumbled feta (surprise, surprise!) is just as nice to eat as straight after cooking or cooled to room temperature. But I’d prefer the chilled version today because it makes me think of Vourvourou, my friend Maria and resting in the shade in her company sipping a chilled beer (sigh!).

Back to cooking! Tourlou is an easy recipe and great for using a medley of vegetable. It can be a light evening dinner on its own or served with rice, a delicious side dish or alternative to salad, and a fantastic tapa or meze. And apparently Tourlou is the same as briam only it’s cooked on a hob- here’s something new for food geeks like me.

Sauté the onion in a bit of oil until translucent. Season with a pinch of salt.

Add the mustard seeds until they start popping.

Add the tomatoes sliced in half or quarters and cook for a few minutes until softened.

Crumble the tofu with your hands into the mixture.

Add the turmeric and paprika and stir with a wooden spoon. Add as much turmeric as you need to make the tofu look like scramble eggs.

Cook the tofu with your spices for about five minutes. Season with the rest of your salt and pepper.

Turn the heat off and add the grated cheese. Toss until the cheese it melts nicely.

Taste and season more if required, tofu is very bland and might need more salt than you thought it does.

Be creative with your spices in tofu. You can make Indian, Thai or Italian flavoured scrambu as we do or make your own version. Coriander goes really well with garam massala spices and you can add a chilli pepper too. But the basil and tomato version is very tasty too with a pinch of cinnamon or pimento berries.